


steal my heart instead

by thelarrieinyou



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: :-), Fluff, Gardening, M/M, louis loves flowers, uhhhh most of this is just louis freaking out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-22 18:57:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19972093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelarrieinyou/pseuds/thelarrieinyou
Summary: The note simply says:Sorry - H. Louis starts wracking his brain for anyone he knows that has an H at the beginning of their names and finds he knows no one whose name starts with H.  He leaves his garden and stomps into his house, grabbing his phone from the coffee table ready to complain to Liam.orsomeone is stealing Louis' flowers and he wants to know who!





	steal my heart instead

**Author's Note:**

> hi, i know nothing about maintaining a garden ! happy reading :-) !

The wind is slightly blowing as Louis tends to the rose bush. He’s wearing pink overalls, that are cuffed at the bottom, with white high top vans and a white visor protects his eyes from the sun. His task for the day was to pull weeds, but instead he got caught up with his prized possession. This rose bush is the first rose bush he had ever plants and watching it grow has been the highlight of his life. 

He rubs his thumb over the petal of a rose and rises to his feet, brushing off the dirt and grass from his knees. He’s finally going to get to his daily task, until he notices something strange. A rose was cut from the bush and he knows he didn’t do it. He would never do that. Louis studies the peony bush next to his rose bush, he frowns and crouches down and rubs the stems, when he sees the same was done to this bush, who would do this? 

Maybe it was just some kid doing something nice for their parents, no reason to be upset over that. His neighbors are lovely and never bother him, so he genuinely doesn’t have a clue as to who it could be.

The garden stretches out over the front of his house into half of the front yard, different vibrant flowers. Liam, his best friend, told him it would be better to have it in the back, but what’s the fun in that if no one can see his prized possessions? Louis remembers when he fell in love with gardening, there was an older woman who lived next to his family who always had a house full of different plants and her yard was absolutely beautiful. He remembers going over every day when he was 10 years old and asking her if he could water her plants and it soon became his first job. Louis smiles fondly at the bushes and brushes it off as a neighborhood kids doing. It probably won’t happen again. 

~ 

It happens again. 

It’s a week after the first time and this time some of his purple petunias have been snipped from their bush leaving only the pink and white petunias. He loved his purple petunias. He sets down his faded yellow watering can and walks back into his house. Once inside he finds a pen and a sticky note, on the paper he writes: _Can you kindly refrain from snipping anymore of my flowers? It would be greatly appreciated. - Lou_ and adds a big smiley face so he comes off as friendly. 

He walks back outside and sticks the paper in between some of his petunias, hoping it won’t blow away and that the flower thief will find it. He sighs and continues watering his plants. He’s been caring for his garden for nearly a year and someone has the nerve to try and ruin it. 

~  
The next day Louis is walking through his garden, a cup of tea in hand, and stops at his petunias. He sees the note is gone and smiles satisfied that the person took his words to heart. He continues his walk through his front yard, checking on his flowers, and groans because he sees one of his heleniums are missing, and a note tucked in between the flowers. 

The note simply says: _Sorry - H_. Louis starts racking his brain for anyone he knows that has an H at the beginning of their names and finds he knows no one whose name starts with H. He leaves his garden and stomps into his house, grabbing his phone from the coffee table ready to complain to Liam. 

Liam answers on the second ring, “Hello?” 

“Li, we have a problem,” he says quickly. 

“By we, do you mean you?” 

Louis rolls his eyes and groans, “This isn’t a joking matter, someone is stealing my flowers!” 

“It’s probably some kid, don’t worry about it,” Liam explains like Louis didn’t already think of that. 

“I thought the same thing, but it’s been happening every day, they snipped one of my petunias Liam! A _petunia_! You know those are my favorite and they were the purple ones!” 

Louis can practically hear Liam rolling his eyes through the phone, he’s been best friends with the man for years, he should know how important his flowers are. “When does it happen?” Liam asks. 

Louis didn’t think about that, he actually doesn’t know, “I guess it happens in the morning because I normally check on them in the afternoon,” he explains. 

“Have a stake out.” 

“ _What_ ,” Louis says incredulously, “Liam Payne, you’re telling me to _spy_ on someone?” 

“Goodbye Lou,” Liam sighs. 

“I’m kidding, but that’s a grand idea, do you want to help me?” Hopefully Liam will say yes. 

“No,” Liam deadpans. 

Louis doesn’t even know why he tried, “But Li, we could have a sleepover just like the old days,” Louis huffs, “please?” 

Liam doesn’t answer for a while and Louis is about to ask again when Liam answers, “Alright, fine. But if they do come, I’m not going outside to speak with them.” 

“Deal!” Louis chirped. 

“Bye Lou,” Liam chuckles and hangs up. 

~  
The next day Louis wakes up on his couch covered in popcorn kernels and no blanket. Liam is in the recliner, mouth wide open, and stretched out with one of Louis’ quilts. They had a marvel movie marathon the night before, there were plenty of arguments over Iron Man and Captain America throughout the night. _“Iron Man is obviously the better hero, he’s cool and rich,” Louis rolls his eyes. “Lou, Captain America is a man of the people, he’s more relatable. Plus, he’s dating Bucky, that makes him better automatically.”_

He pats the couch for his phone and when he doesn’t feel it near him he pats the ground, it hits his fingertips and he picks it up. He checks the time and it says 10:00 in big white letters, Louis shoots up from the couch and hurries over to Liam. He shakes Liam, that doesn’t work, the man is too far gone. 

He results to poking his face and even that doesn’t work. He yells Liam’s name and claps his hands together, that still doesn’t work. He opens the music app on his phone, turns the volume to max, places the phone near Liam’s ear, and plays American Idiot by Green Day. Liam finally jolts awake and looks around like he doesn’t know where he is. Louis takes the phone away, pauses his music, and places his hands on his hips, “Are you awake now?” 

Liam looks up at him as if he just noticed him standing there and glares. “Oh don’t look at me like that Li, do you know what time it is,” Louis asks, “did you forget why you’re here?” 

Liam, still glaring, grumbles out a, “No. Of course I didn’t forget Lou.” 

“Well then let’s go, get up,” Louis claps and begins to walk over to the front door. 

He reaches the front of the house and turns around to see if Liam followed him. He didn’t. “Li, if you don’t get in here right now I will shave off the rest of your eyebrow,” Louis yells. 

He hears rustling and sees Liam in the next two seconds, he smirks, “Alright, you get the window on the left, I get the window on the right.” 

They go to their respective windows and opens up the blinds, so far they see no one. 

They’ve been peeking out of the blinds for five minutes Louis goes over to Liam, “Anything?” 

“Nope” 

Louis sighs and returns back to his watch position. After another 5 minutes with no sign of the flower thief, Louis feels the need to give up. He slowly backs away from the window figuring they’ve already missed their chance at seeing the thief and by the time he’s in the living room, Liam is running in like a madman, waving his arms around and moving his lips, but not forming words.

“Words please, Liam” 

Liam stops moving, exhales, and calmly says, “The person is outside right now, they’re by your rose bush. I don’t know what he’s doing bu-” 

Before Liam finishes his sentences, Louis is running toward the window and aggressively pulls up the blinds. The person is crouched in front of his rose bushes, they seem to just be looking, but Louis can’t help the anger that is starting to boil inside of him. From what Louis can see, the person has long curly brown hair, he can’t see their face, so he pulls away from the window and walks toward the door. He has to know what the person looks like, that was the whole point of this. 

His hand is on the doorknob ready to turn it when there’s a pull at his wrist. Liam is looking at him pointedly, “Don’t do it Lou.” 

“But I have to see them,” exclaims a nearly whining Louis. He pouts and hopes that’ll do the trick, it normally does, Liam is a sucker for it. 

“No, that won’t work.” 

Louis pouts more and makes sure to look extra pitiful and tries again, “Please, it’s for a good cause.” 

Liam sighs and lets go of Louis’ wrist, “Fine” 

Louis immediately opens the door, and walks out onto his porch. He looks toward his rose bushes and sees that the person is still there, and still looking at the roses, but this time he has a better look at the person’s face. From afar Louis can see how beautiful the man is. He has a crinkle between his brows as if he’s contemplating something, he has a jawline that looks like it was sculpted by the Gods themselves, and big round eyes that make him look more like a deer...or maybe a frog? But a really cute frog. 

The man pulls out a pair of scissors from a bag, Louis guesses and after one final touch of the rose, he has a loose grip on the stem, and cuts the rose from the bush.  
~ 

Louis spends the rest of the day fuming in his living room after Liam went home. He knows they’re just flowers, but those flowers are basically like his children. He loves caring for them and watching them grow and the fact that a complete stranger is clipping them for some unknown reason makes his blood boil. 

Later in the evening, the doorbell rings, he figures it’s just the pizza that he ordered and grabs his wallet before going to the door. He reaches the door and opens it, only to find no one is on the other side. He peeks outside of the first, looking left and right, Louis steps out after he sees someone but steps on something and jumps back. His hand is on his chest and his breathing is way too heavy, he looks down to see what awful object scared him.

Louis’ eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he’s looking at a red medium sized journal, that has the letter ‘L’ on the center of the cover written in sharpie. Louis looks around again before picking up the journal and running his thumb over the L. He opens the book and on the first page, there’s a rose pressed into the page, and a date. He notices the date is from the first time he realized his flowers were being snipped. He flips through more pages and all of the flowers that were taken from his garden are in the book and the date is written on all of the pages. Is this a joke? He gets to the last page and it’s completely empty. He flips it back and forth and finds nothing. 

Louis looks up when he hears someone clearing their throat, his lets out a shocked gasp. The man in front of him is the flower thief, H. He’s dressed in a silky white button up shirt, flared blue jeans, and brown loafers, his brown curly hair reaches his shoulders and there’s a grey newsboy cap placed on his head. Louis also notices the single rose in his hand and the way he’s biting his lip and blushing. He doesn’t know whether to be creeped out or flattered. 

H finally speaks, “Um, I’m sorry this is so unconventional, but I couldn’t think of anything else because I’ve been so terrified.” 

Louis stares at him, closes the book, and lifts an eyebrow, “What in the world would make you cut my flowers and put them in a book?” 

“Well, I’ve seen you at the neighborhood watch meetings and I’ve kind of been wanting to ask you out for a while and I wanted to make it creative.” H rubs the back of his neck and looks down, “This is creative isn’t it? I’m so sorry about using your flowers by the way.” 

“Kind of funny that you go to the meetings and I’m the one that had to watch out for you. Lucky I didn’t call the police.” 

H snorts, “I don’t think the police would’ve helped very much if I’m being honest.” 

Louis rolls his eyes, “May I ask what you’re doing here Mr. H? I have very important business to tend to.” 

“My name is Harry and I guess I’m just here to ask if you want to I guess...go on a date with me?” Harry is blushing more than when he showed up, his face is completely red and his grin looks kind of uncomfortable from how wide it is. 

Louis waits a while before he answers just to keep Harry waiting. When he sees Harry’s grin starting to wan he immediately rushes out, “Of course I’ll go on a date with you.” 

Harry’s grin returns to his face but this time it looks more genuine, he’s about to say something when Louis cuts in, “I order some pizza, you could join me if you wanted to?” This time he’s the one blushing. 

Harry automatically nods, so fast that Louis is worried he’s gonna give himself whiplash. Louis turns and enters the house, waving Harry in. Before Harry enters Louis pushes the journal to his chest, stopping Harry in his tracks, “But first can you show me how you pressed the flowers? I actually kind of like it.” 

“Yeah, yeah, it’s easy enough especially since you have such beautiful flowers.” Harry smirks. 

Louis lets out a loud laugh. “Oh, if you think you’re going near my flowers again, you’ve completely lost your mind.” 

That night Louis and Harry tell horrible jokes, share personal stories, and press the single stolen rose into the notebook. Louis signs it with the date at the top right corner and at the bottom of the page Harry writes _stolen with love_.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: dimpledlovers


End file.
